Life in Hollywood, below-the-line

Life in Hollywood, below-the-line
Work gloves at the end of the 2006/2007 television season (photo by Richard Blair)

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Old Dogs, New Tricks

Pot, meet Kettle...
Nothing blows the illusion of the Old West like a pioneer woman checking her cell phone…


I've been carping about the increasing ubiquity and abuse of cell phones on set ever since the earliest days of this blog. To label my struggle a losing battle would be a massive understatement -- truth is, I've been pissing into the wind of a technological and cultural hurricane all this time.

Which means my shoes are sopping wet at this point.  Time for a new pair.  

"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" the saying goes, and having at long last joined Generation Wireless with my own smart phone, I'm forced into the decidedly uncomfortable position of viewing what once seemed like a clear-cut, black-and-white issue from the other side -- because in struggling to cope with the terminal tedium of my current brain-dead, soul-crushing show, I too find myself staring into that little glowing screen as the cameras roll, and roll, and roll.

Ahem.

I get it. The daily routine on set can be very boring, and it's nice to have a small device at hand that's capable of bringing the larger world in -- and as the pot who made such a big deal of calling the cell-phone kettle black for such a long time, it's my turn to eat a little crow while shaking hands with that very same kettle... to mix, mangle, and obliterate my metaphors in the conceptual cuisinart.  

The phone remains in my work bag during our three lighting days each week, which are when the really heavy lifting takes place, but come those two (or sometimes three) grindingly endless shoot days, the phone has a spot in my tool pouch, ready to whisk me off to Google, Facebook, Gmail, or one of my favorite sites, The Electric Typewriter, to help pass the time and ease the drip, drip, drip torture of slow brain death -- or what my gaffer (in a brilliant turn of phrase) refers to as "content poisoning."

And sometimes -- very rarely, and only when strictly necessary -- I'll even make a quick phone call at work. Imagine that.*

Although I see some of the younger juicers and grips losing themselves in on-line games of one sort or another with their phones, the appeal of this eludes me. But  hey, when it comes to dealing with tedium, to each his own. 

Still, I always keep one eye and ear tuned to whatever's happening on set, ready to jam that phone back in my tool pouch and answer the call. An old analog dog might be able to learn a new digital trick or two, but work habits forged over the decades die hard. If you want to call it "old school," fine -- that's not a bad thing in my world.**  However stupefyingly boring the action in front of the cameras can be (and oh Sweet Jesus, does this show put me to the test each and every week…), doing the job right means paying attention.  

And if you can't do that, you shouldn't be on set.

Harrumph...



* Which leads me to another revelation -- I finally understand the massive popularity of texting.  Given that the audio quality of a $650 dollar smart phone is unbelievably crappy, it's no wonder people prefer to tap out a print message than deal with the frustration of a mutually unintelligible voice conversation.

** Or you can just call me old. There's no denying the truth anymore...

11 comments:

JD said...

Hmmm....tedium on set? Read a book, play cards or an actual board game that makes you think like Scrabble or chess, learn some new skill, learn to tie some new knots (like the masthead knot!)or just wall yourself off in your own little cell phone world. Such a difficult choice. I once did some minor truck repair while on location. A friend knits, etc.

Michael Taylor said...

JD --

I hear you -- and got deep into a reply to your comment, but it soon grew too long for this space. I'll address this in a future post...

Anonymous said...

As someone supervising others...

I've found an interesting pattern. With distraction so close at hand, unless work is hand-fed to the phone-addicted, their attention is soon lost. They find themselves "bored" - which of course means it's not unreasonable to use a cell phone.

In most jobs outside movies there is almost always more work that can be done. The one without the phone is asking questions, getting ready or starting the next thing. The one with the phone is quickly checked out. I've started doing a meeting and making sure the folks with phones have a long list of the projects they need to complete. Our conversations now go like this.

"How's it going on X"
Puts phone down - "I'm waiting on Y"
"Got it. Did you look at your list for what you can do next while you wait?"

If you are early in your career (20's) keep your ears open. The boss paying for your time will appreciate it. And the client paying by the hour and watching will appreciate it even more. Some paying clients are older - zoning out on their $250/hr will be considered rude, no matter how justified it is (and in some cases it is).

Now on the long public transit rides too and from a location (in my work) - I'm all for the phone, the kindle etc. That is your time.

Michael Taylor said...

Anonymous -

Agreed. The cell phone habits of on-set film/television crews would probably get them fired in just about any other business… but film/TV are a very different business. I'll elaborate in a future post. Thanks for tuning in.

BoskoLives said...

I've had a "smartphone" for a few years and only just recently realized I can make phone calls on it, although finding someone who will talk is a challenge. We seem to be in the world of texts and on occasion email, I seldom receive more than 4 or 5 actual calls a week, but I'll get an easy 100 to 200 texts or emails a week, any hints as to what might have driven this change over?

Michael Taylor said...

Bosko --

I'm probably the last guy you should ask this question, being that I've had a smart phone for all of four months now. That said, it seems to me there are several factors at work here. One (as mentioned in the post), is the crappy audio quality of cell phones, especially if you're not in a very quiet location. Out on the street, forget understanding half of what the other person says. Add in the dropouts and calls cut off for no apparent reason, and cell phones simply aren't conducive to making actual phone calls.

Then there's the speed factor. When all you want to do is send a photo with a brief caption, forward something found on the web, or impart a brief, specific message ("Call time is 7:00 A.M.") without a lot of how's-the-wife-and-kids chit-chat, texting or e-mailing is the way to go.

Beyond that, I have no idea. Ask the next pork-pie-hat clad, man-bun equipped, goatee-wearing, fully tatted-out hipster you run into -- he can doubtless clue you in to modern cultural/technological modes of behavior a lot better than I...

JD said...

Funny, I can get the message across in a call much quicker than texting. Most people I receive a text from create this tedious, lengthy, drawn out "dialog". No consideration that you might actually be doing something like working or driving a vehicle. Any thought, however trivial and inopportune, must be disseminated and acknowledged immediately. I usually have to terminate messaging with an "OK", "bye", "copy", or "busy now". I don't find texting nearly as effective or efficient as walkie etiquette.

BoskoLives said...

I email a resume and get a text in reply asking if I'm available.
I reply with a text asking when.
They name a day and then counter with"what's your rate?" text.
I text back asking for more info, i.e. where, when, what are you shooting (the amount of gear I bring is based on those factors).
Then they ask what equipment do you have?
I reply, it's listed at the bottom of the resume I sent you.
Then... crickets.....
What could have been a one or two minute conversation dragged on for a morning as we ended up spending a lot of time basically just sending smoke signals back and forth.
Ah, Progress.....

Anonymous said...

Michael,

If you are on an iphone facetime audio only calls will be your friend for voice quality. I agree, the voice quality is otherwise terrible.

JD said...

What BoskoLives said...times 10.

I remember a time when I didn't get hired because I had only a dumb phone and didn't have a Blackberry..... Producer/Director/DP asked, "No Blackberry, how can I communicate details to you prior to the shoot?" Don't know...,phone call, email?

What really requires such an immediate answer?

Michael Taylor said...

JD, Bosko --

Interesting -- I guess you go with whatever works. My information on texting comes mostly from Best Boys, who report that sending out a mass text when looking for manpower is the most efficient way, but that's a relatively simple task. A phone call is a much better means of sharing more complex information than the one-way-at-a-time mode of thumb-talking.

As for not getting hired because you only had a dumb phone… wow. Maybe you're better off not working for a jerk like that...

Anonymous -- thanks for the tip. Mine is indeed an iPhone, but I had no idea FaceTime could be done in audio-only mode.